scholarly journals Testing the interface hypothesis: The acquisition of English indirect questions by L1 speakers of Omani Arabic

Heliyon ◽  
2022 ◽  
pp. e08752
Author(s):  
Amer Ahmed ◽  
Iryna Lenchuk
Keyword(s):  
Interface Hypothesis

Bilingual referential choice in cognitively demanding situations

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Carla Contemori ◽  
Iva Ivanova
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Cognitive Demand ◽  
Automatic Processing ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Referential Choice

AbstractUnder the Interface Hypothesis, bilinguals’ non-nativelike referential choices may be influenced by the increased cognitive demands and less automatic processing of bilingual production. We test this hypothesis by comparing pronoun production in the L2 of nonbalanced Spanish–English bilinguals to that of English monolinguals in two cognitively challenging contexts. In Experiment 1, both monolinguals and bilinguals produced more explicit references when part of the information was unavailable to their addressee (privileged ground) than when all information was shared (common ground), evidencing audience design. In Experiment 2, verbal load led to more unspecified references than visual load and no load (an effect statistically indistinguishable between groups but numerically driven by the monolingual group). While bilinguals produced overall more pronouns than monolinguals in both experiments, there was no indication that bilinguals’ referential choice was disproportionally affected by increased cognitive demand, contrary to the predictions of the Interface Hypothesis.

scholarly journals Comparing anaphora resolution in early and late Brazilian Portuguese-European Portuguese bidialectal bilinguals

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 429-461
Author(s):  
Tammer Castro ◽  
Jason Rothman ◽  
Marit Westergaard
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Anaphora Resolution ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Null Subject ◽  
European Portuguese ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
High Degree

The present study examines anaphora resolution in two groups of speakers exposed to Brazilian and European Portuguese (BP and EP, respectively), considering the different null subject distribution in these languages. Our research question is whether late BP-EP bilinguals (age of EP onset: 29.1) and heritage BP speakers raised in Portugal (age of EP onset 5.6), tested in both dialects, will pattern like the native controls or display some effects of EP in their native BP or vice-versa. This is an interesting question in light of the Interface Hypothesis, which claims that external interfaces should be subject to general bilingualism effects irrespective of language pairing and age (Sorace, 2011). The results show that age has an effect, as the heritage speakers do not perform like the late learners, and that the high degree of typological proximity between the two languages could hinder bidialectal acquisition.

Bilingualism effects in Basque Subject Pronoun Expression

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 523-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez ◽  
Lorena Sainzmaza-Lecanda
Keyword(s):  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Subject Pronoun ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Spanish Bilinguals

Abstract The Interface Hypothesis (IH) (Sorace, 2011; Sorace & Filiaci, 2006; Sorace & Serratrice, 2009) proposes that structures involving an interface between syntax and other modules are less likely to be fully acquired. Whereas some studies have found evidence in favor of the IH (Michnowicz, 2015), others have reported that adult 2L1 and L2 speakers of differing proficiencies are equally efficient in acquiring the pragmatic constraints conditioning Subject Pronoun Expression (SPE) (Carvalho & Bessett, 2015; Prada-Pérez, 2015). In light of these contradictory results, this study tests the IH by exploring the acquisition of Basque SPE using naturally-occurring speech from 25 Basque-Spanish bilinguals. Results show that Basque L2-learners are responsive to discourse-pragmatic constraints. In fact, L2-Basque SPE is conditioned by a more complex set of constraints than native Basque SPE, for which we propose that L2 SPE results from a process of complexification (Dahl, 2004), triggered by transfer effects from Spanish.

Beyond interfaces

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 494-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Gómez Soler
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Empirical Adequacy ◽  
Syntactic Awareness ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Parameter Mapping ◽  
Articulated Model ◽  
Processing Resources ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Psych Verb

By analyzing the empirical data from two experiments that test Spanish psych-verb properties (e.g. gustar ‘to like’), this article assesses the empirical adequacy of the Interface Hypothesis (IH), which claims that external interfaces (i.e. interfaces between a linguistic module and a cognitive module) are more problematic for learners than internal interfaces/narrow syntax (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006; Sorace, 2011; inter alia). Because my findings were inconsistent with the IH (i.e. target-like pragmatics knowledge can precede syntactic awareness of the same construction), I turned to the Integrative Model of Bilingual Acquisition (Pires & Rothman, 2011), which accounts for non-native divergence by resorting to the interplay of a series of factors (i.e. formal complexity, L1-L2 parameter mapping, processing resources, and PLD). This more articulated model is not only able to account for the patterns in these experiments but it also constitutes a more integrated explanation for the intricacies of the acquisition process.

An investigation of unaccusativity and word order in Mexican Spanish

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron B. Roggia
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cutoff Point ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Auxiliary Selection ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Verb Categories

Abstract Studies of unaccusativity and word order in Spanish have yielded conflicting results. This study further investigates unaccusativity by testing the ability of the ‘Auxiliary Selection Hierarchy’ (Sorace 2000) to account for word orders with intransitive predicates in Mexican Spanish. The results of an oral production task show significant word order differences between verb categories and locate an unergative/unaccusative cutoff point midway along the hierarchy, situating unaccusativity in Spanish as being similar to Italian but trending in the direction of Dutch or French. Other variables affecting the word order are identified and ranked, including subject heaviness, definiteness, and the location of adverbial phrases. Greater inter-speaker variation at the syntax-discourse interface when compared with the syntax-lexicon interface shows that the Interface Hypothesis has application to native speakers of Spanish. The results of this study are important for current research on unaccusativity and syntactic interfaces.

Acquiring the syntactic constraints on auxiliary change under restructuring in L2 Italian

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tihana Kraš
Keyword(s):  
Magnitude Estimation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Original Version ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Syntactic Constraints ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Incomplete Acquisition

This paper reports the findings of an experiment into the syntactic constraints on auxiliary change under restructuring in Italian L2 grammars which are possibly at the end state. Its aim is to test the prediction of the original version of the Interface Hypothesis that narrow syntactic properties are fully acquirable in the L2. In Italian restructuring constructions with embedded unaccusatives, the change of auxiliary from avere (‘have’) to essere (‘be’) is either optional or obligatory depending on clitic presence and placement. A group of highly proficient L1 Croatian adult L2 learners of Italian and a group of adult Italian native speakers used Magnitude Estimation to express their auxiliary preferences in restructuring constructions with embedded unaccusatives. The L2 learners were shown not to know when auxiliary change is optional and when obligatory. Such findings are not consistent with the version of the Interface Hypothesis tested. Possible reasons for the incomplete acquisition of the phenomenon under scrutiny are discussed in the paper.

scholarly journals Input effects across domains: The case of Greek subjects in child heritage language

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 421-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evangelia Daskalaki ◽  
Vasiliki Chondrogianni ◽  
Elma Blom ◽  
Froso Argyri ◽  
Johanne Paradis
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
North America ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Heritage Language Acquisition ◽  
English Bilingual ◽  
Interface Hypothesis

A recurring question in the literature of heritage language acquisition, and more generally of bilingual acquisition, is whether all linguistic domains are sensitive to input reduction and to cross-linguistic influence and to what extent. According to the Interface Hypothesis, morphosyntactic phenomena regulated by discourse–pragmatic conditions are more likely to lead to non-native outcomes than strictly syntactic aspects of the language (Sorace, 2011). To test this hypothesis, we examined subject realization and placement in Greek–English bilingual children learning Greek as a heritage language in North America and investigated whether the amount of heritage language use can predict their performance in syntax–discourse and narrow syntactic contexts. Results indicated two deviations from the Interface Hypothesis: First, subject realization (a syntax–discourse phenomenon) was found to be largely unproblematic. Second, subject placement was affected not only in syntax–discourse structures but also in narrow syntactic structures, though to a lesser degree, suggesting that the association between the interface status of subject placement and its sensitivity to heritage language use among children heritage speakers is gradient rather than categorical.

The acquisition of Focus in L2 Spanish

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Leal ◽  
Emilie Destruel ◽  
Bradley Hoot
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Interface Hypothesis ◽  
L2 Spanish ◽  
Information Focus ◽  
Focus Marking ◽  
Discourse Interface ◽  
Recent Experimental Work

This paper examines the strategies used by speakers of Spanish as a second language (L2) for marking Information Focus, a phenomenon found at the syntax–discourse interface. Sorace and colleagues have proposed the Interface Hypothesis, according to which the syntax–discourse interface poses unique challenges for bilinguals (Sorace, 2011). With respect to Spanish, there exists a gap between the theoretical and empirical literatures on Focus realization; the former suggests that Focus must appear in sentence-final position, yet recent experimental work challenges this claim, showing that Focus commonly remains in situ. Using a speeded production task, we compared the response patterns of L2 Spanish speakers to that of natives in order to bring additional evidence to bear on the debate. Results revealed an asymmetry: L2 learners converged with native speakers on Subject Focus but not on Object Focus, where proficiency mediated overall divergences, indicating a change toward more nativelike Focus-marking strategies over time. We discuss our findings in light of the Interface Hypothesis and existing theories of Focus marking in Spanish.

The Interface Hypothesis

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia White
Keyword(s):  
Interface Hypothesis
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